I was walking through the woods of a city-owned property and came upon a pair of shoes. The other shoe was under the log, and I didn't want to disturb the scene; I wanted to keep it exactly as it was when I first saw it.
Zenit E
Helios 44-2
Fomapan 400 film metered at ASA 200
f/2
1/500
Nice one Matt! I love 'found' stuff in the woods. There is always a good story to tell in the photograph. My only feedback for you would be that a slightly tighter crop might be worth trying in order to get rid of the bright sky in top left. This is distracting to me. Otherwise all round nicely done!
I tried this but it might be to tight. I like the scale in yours but without the bright corner sky. :)
thanks for the feedback! I did crop and rotate this slightly, so if adjust I can fit a little more in the scene than your sample. If this were taken digitally I would just drop the highlights at the top to mute the sky, but my only edits for B&W film are those that either compensate for scanning problems or are techniques that I confidently know I could do with darkroom printing if I had an enlarger. All that being said, I think I'll just stand by what I have now until I feel like I'm not cheating.
for reference, here's a different view of the scene. the blur on the left is a tree to which I was too close to effectively use it as a foreground element
Really Matt - a Zenit E? My first SLR was a used Zenit E purchased at least 45 years ago.... Is this an old camera you are still using or a very old image?
On the image, what a great find - I love the way the f2 has isolated the subject from the background, with the branch making an effective lead-in.
I agree with Ruth on the crop - the bright sky is s distraction and plays no part in the story.
Hats off to you for creating such fine work with such an old standard.
I did in fact take this photo with a Zenit E just a few weeks ago! It's relatively new to me, and this was the second roll of film I put through it.